Panthers 2021 fantasy football sleeper predictions

If the trends at training camp continue into the season, then the Panthers have two fantasy sleepers.

The 2021 Panthers team has four starting caliber fantasy players in running back Christian McCaffrey, wide receivers DJ Moore and Robby Anderson, and quarterback Sam Darnold. McCaffrey is a consensus No. 1 overall pick in single quarterback leagues, second in super flex leagues. He will be worth the pick as I expect a solid bounce back season for McCaffrey.

Before I go any further I will mention we have a couple spots left open in our 2021 CSR fantasy leagues.

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Moore and Anderson are both solid No. 2 wide receivers, just don’t draft both of them. I would lean towards Anderson because of his prior work with Darnold in New York. Moore on the other hand will benefit by getting some of the handoffs Curtis Samuel got last season. Both players could top 1,000 combined yards on the season in an offense I expect to be able to move the ball down the field.

I think Darnold is draftable as a late round backup quarterback. I predict Darnold will have his best season yet and be a streaming option based on the matchup. I realize I’m not going out on a limb too much by saying that as Darnold has underwhelmed as a pro. My thought is to see how he does in the opener against his old team and then decide whether to drop him for a better option on the wire. For example Tua Tagovailoa might be a better option and a player I’m keeping an eye on, but I digress.

While Darnold won’t be an every week starter in fantasy, the other three Panthers should be. So who else might be worth starting this season? Well what I saw at Fan Fear was exactly what we have all been hearing throughout training camp. The Panthers have two legit sleeper pass catchers you might be scrambling to pick up on the waiver wire after a couple games.

Tight end Dan Arnold has been a regular target for Darnold throughout camp. When I saw Arnold in action in person, dare I say it but he reminded me of Greg Olsen, but with brown hair. While I’m still leery of how many targets he could get in this offense, where Arnold could excel is the red zone. The Panthers first released depth chart (unofficial) showed a two tight end set. That is a common set for the red zone and so it sets up well for Arnold. In summary Arnold could be a top-12 tight end with four to six targets a game with half of those coming in the red zone.

Arnold is the 29th ranked tight end in the Yahoo Sports Xrank rankings (No. 270 overall), meaning he should be available for one of the last picks of the draft. Fantasy Pros likewise has Arnold ranked No. 30 in the fifth tier of tight ends. In many leagues he will go undrafted. So I like him as a back up and if he blows up then you have trade bait for later in the season.

Rookie wide receiver Terrace Marshall is another player that could make some noise in 2021. I filmed some of the plays at Fan Fest but missed the best one of the night. In 7-on-7s Marshall was in the slot and juked the coverage so bad after just a couple steps he was open by ten yards. Marshall has speed, size and knows how to run routes. It might take an injury to a starter (knock on wood) for Marshall to garner regular targets but I think he will be a solid fantasy starter sooner than later.

Terrence Marshall is even more of an after thought in fantasy rankings. He is 80th-plus ranked wide receiver in Yahoo (No. 240 overall) and is pretty much going undrafted. That shouldn’t be surprising for a rookie drafted in the second round going to an offense that underwhelmed the previous year. One thing to note is Fantasy Pros has the Panthers wide receivers as having the easiest schedule for wide receivers in 2021.

Are you getting the mock draft fever yet? I’ve ran a few so far but will continue to run them from all different positions in the draft. So far I really like one of the middle picks— No. 6 through No. 8. For those in the CSR leagues, please know the default mock draft roster settings do not include a super flex roster position, which changes things a lot. You will instead need to use a service like Fantasy Pros where you can sync your league settings with the simulator to get a more real mock result.

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